I Can’t Do It: Why So Few Hope to Discover and Maintain a Wellness Lifestyle

INTRODUCTION

Over the years, I have collaborated with an eminent Australian scholar (Dr. Grant Donovan of Perth) in conducting research on lifestyle change. Our work has focused on understanding whether adults are more than 50/50 likely to benefit from efforts to improve their lifestyles. Our randomized, double-blind, crossover, horizontal, and worthy trials have explored a simple but profound question that others have taken for granted, namely, can humans do it? That is, can individuals convince themselves to change their lifestyles and, more importantly, maintain the healthy habits they want to adopt over time? If not, it is clear that the frustrations of failure and increased learned hopelessness make it highly unlikely that attempts to improve the lifestyle are likely to be successful and beneficial. Repeated failure to change lifestyle is worse than never trying to live healthy, as frustrations and disappointments lead to loss of interest in change, lower self-esteem, and therefore worse health condition.

Our studies have shown, we believe conclusively, that most people cannot. We refer to this phenomenon because I can’t do it or ICAN’TDOIT. Once the nature of this reality is understood, those who still wish to attempt positive lifestyle changes will have a better chance of success, as few can, if they are endowed with favorable circumstances and aware of difficulties. Everyone should be willing to pay attention to ways that increase success rates.

SUMMARY OF RESULTS

We found that living healthy is too demanding in large part because most are unprepared for the roadblocks. Make no mistake: if everyone could practice and maintain healthy choices, they would. Who wants to get sick and die prematurely? Who wants NOT to look good and have lots of energy and live life to the fullest? If it were easy, everyone would accept responsibility for a high quality of life by choosing to exercise vigorously on a regular basis, eat right, manage stress, think critically, and do everything else. After all, wellness is, as I’ve long preached (secularly), fun, romantic and modern, sexy and free. It is a richer way to be alive. Live this way and you will be stronger and more attractive, you will have higher morale, a higher bowel movement, and more antibodies to resist pandemics.

It would be a little crazy not to live this way, IF I COULD. However, the unfortunate situation we discovered is you probably can’t, which we abbreviate as ICAN’TDOIT.

Napoleon Hill, author of Andrew Carnegie’s famous formula for making money entitled, Think and Grow Rich, studied several thousand people and concluded that 98 percent were failures. This could be a bit harsh and an overstatement. Still, it was interesting to think about the top thirty reasons he thought explained why so many fail.

When Grant and I looked at Hill’s explanations of failure to make money, we came to the conclusion that twenty of Hills’s reasons apply to attempts to live healthily, along the lines of the advanced lines, as well. wellness lifestyles.

Here are the twenty factors thus identified:

1. Unfavorable hereditary history. Many people are born with a deficiency in intellectual capacity or lack of physical capacity, and there is relatively little that they can do about it.

2. Lack of ambition to aim above mediocrity. People lack ambition and are unwilling to put in the considerable effort required for success.

3. Insufficient education. Hill discovered that The best educated people are usually the ones who educate themselves and get what they want in life without violating the rights of others.. Many people have school-based knowledge, but lack the ability to apply their learning effectively and persistently. As Hill points out, Men are paid, not only for what they know, but more particularly for what they do with what they know. “

4. Lack of self-discipline. Most people fail because they lack the discipline necessary for self-control. Closed: If you don’t conquer yourself, you will be conquered by him. You can see both your best friend and your greatest enemy at the same time by standing in front of a mirror.

5. Bad health. Closed: No person can enjoy extraordinary success without good health.. Most of the ones Hill studied Excessive food consumption is not conducive to good health, lack of sufficient physical exercise, rarely breathes fresh air, and generally has poor thinking habits. Sounds familiar?

6. Unfavorable environmental influences during childhood. Most people acquire bad habits from poor surroundings and inappropriate associates during childhood. They spend the rest of their impoverished lives blaming others because cantdoit.

7. Procrastination. Hill’s research led him to conclude that people are always waiting the ‘right time’ to start doing something worthwhile. It almost goes without saying that the time is never right.

8. Lack of persistence. Most people start out good but end badly. They fail in time because they are prone to giving up at the first signs of defeat.

9. Negative personality. Most people don’t like each other. Hill argues that success is achieved through the application of power, and power is obtained through the cooperative efforts of other people. A negative personality will not induce cooperation.

10. Uncontrolled desire for something for nothing. Most people have a gambling instinct and a desire to get rich effortlessly, hence the worldwide success of casinos and lottery groups.

11. Lack of a well-defined decision-making power. Hill believed that successful people make decisions quickly and change them, if at all, slowly; most people, on the other hand, make decisions slowly and change them frequently.

12. Incorrect selection of spouse in marriage. Bad relationships consume energy and destroy most ambitions.

13. Superstition. Superstition is a sign of ignorance. Most people believe a lot of nonsense without the support of evidence or reasons.

14. Incorrect selection of a vocation. The chances of success are not good in work environments that are unpleasant.

15. Lack of concentration of efforts. Most are easily distracted. They fail to focus their efforts on a definitive goal.

16. The habit of indiscriminate spending. This is the largest in Western society. Most people risk financial instability by spending (not investing) more than they can afford.

17. Intolerance. People often fail to achieve quality lifestyles because they are narrow-minded and religiously, racially and politically intolerant.

18. Inability to cooperate with others. People miss out on opportunities in life because they lack the ability to work effectively with others.

19. Guess instead of thinking. Hill suggests, most people are too indifferent or lazy to acquire facts with which to think precisely. They prefer to act on opinions created by guesswork or quick judgments.

20. Lack of capital. Most people start out and travel through life without enough capital to absorb the impact of mistakes.

Donovan and I do not claim that these twenty factors are tea most critical variables for all regarding changing lifestyles for the better. Yet these twenty explain why so many find it difficult to maintain good intentions for healthy living.

By becoming familiar with this list, you can develop a greater appreciation for the seriousness of barriers or obstacles to well-being and therefore increase the scope of your engagement. It takes a lot of dedication and intention to continue to invest the energy needed to maintain your wellness lifestyle over time.

RESEARCH SUPPORTS THESE RESULTS

A non-rigorous and uncontrolled study reported in the satirical Onion revealed a trend that shows that there is no reliable set of factors that allow a person to take better care of themselves., or alter their behavior in a significant way. Dr. Janice Carlisle, author of the report, concludes that we’re all wasting time here. She added ..Long-term health education meant nothing last year, and it won’t mean anything this year or any year after until you die, so forget it. Just do what you want. The article, titled A new study doesn’t find anything that really convinces you to change your lifestyle, so forget it, is one of the best sources of lighthearted news, if not reliable. (See The Onion, April 30, 2013.)

Think about all of this and decide if you are truly ready to follow a REAL wellness lifestyle.

Good luck, and don’t underestimate how difficult it can be to stay focused on the positive side of life.